Transcript of Cut Debt out of Your Life, One Credit Card at a Time

Welcome to the Ramsey show, where we help you win in your life. We help you win with your money, we help you win in your work, and we help you win in your relationships. All three of those are so connected, and we want you to have peace so that you can live the life that you desire to live. I'm Ken Coleman. The incomparable, the fabulous Jade Warshaw is joining me. She makes me look so much better. I'm always happy when you're here because you make me sound better.

You're helping them win with the fashion. Look at this jacket.

You like the jacket today? All right. All right. We're off to a good start, folks. Triple 888-25-5225 is the phone number. Triple 8888-825-5225 Jade's going to help you out. Lead on the money questions. And I'm going to help out and lead on the income question. We want you making Mo money. Mo money so we can get rid of those money problems. Heidi's going to start us off in Columbus, Ohio. Heidi, how can we help today?

Hi. Yes, thanks for taking my call. So it's kind of a two part question. We have two special needs kiddos. They're little, but we know going forth, we're going to be dealing with this at least the rest of our lives, with helping them with their finance, with their health needs. But we're strapped right now. I've taken about a 20 hours work week job because I wasn't working, and we have no margin. So I'm struggling with, is there a way that I could maximize my 20 ish hours of work time? Because when I work more, things just fall through the cracks. That's what we've been finding, because my husband can't hold it down. My husband has been at his job for nine and a half years, and he's not getting a big raise. You know, looking at it from, okay, how are we. We're living at. We have cut everything, but this is gonna be our lives, like with the kiddos. So how do you guys have any tips or help or any ideas how we can maximize? Because we aren't even able to really save for retirement at this point. So it is overwhelming.

Yeah. So if what I'm hearing, you guys have cut to the absolute bone. So this is 100% about we need more income? Is that what we're hearing?

Yes.

Okay. What does your husband do? What. What space is he in?

Yep. He's an analyst and he works in food distribution, so he does a lot of problem solving and analyzing things.

What does he need, honestly?

Because he's bored. He makes sixty two k a year. No real bonuses, so.

Sixty two k a year, and he's an analyst. Is that on the technical side or is it on the logistics side?

Of logistics side?

Okay, well, so there's two things. Very simple. Okay. And it's gonna sound simple when I just say it, but now we've got to actually go do what I'm gonna tell you. And so if he were sitting with me right now, I'd say, okay, you've got experience and you've got skill as an analyst. You're in logistics right now, but you could probably move over into the technical side of things. And technology right now would be one space that I would have him look at, because he can get trained and qualified pretty quickly. And again, he has transferable skills and experience with, with a path upward is where technology is going. And he's kind of in process. Not kind of, he's in the process type of work. And I just think he has to upskill, and that's going to take a little bit of time. And unfortunately, some money. And Jade can weigh in there. She knows how to. I'm telling you, she can find money, and I want her to weigh in on that. But I would be looking for him. He needs to be. Adding $20 to $40,000 to that income would be his goal.

And that would make a sizable change in your life. Yes or no?

Oh, that'd be huge.

Okay, so he's. Because of the kiddos, because you're the CEO of the house, and you've already said this lovingly, when you're out, it drops through the cracks. And that's what it would be like in Stacey and I's relationship to, if Stacey was out there doing stuff and I was left to try to figure it out, Jade, it'd be a four alarm fire. You know this to be true. So I get that. So I think we want to focus on him right now. And. And so he needs to be thinking about, where can I pivot? So that I'm on a ladder and I'm. And I'm making six figures. That is not an aggressive goal. I think it's a very realistic goal. And so I'm going to do a couple of things here because I want to get Jaden here on the money thing, because here's what we're. Here's what I want to bring you in on, and I'm going to give her something really quick. But mentally here, there's potentially a minimal cost for him to do some upskilling. And so I want you to weigh in on that because she's already feeling like. But real quick, before I hand it to Jade, Heidi, we're going to give you.

Let me put you on hold in a second. I want to give your husband the find the work you're wired to do book. And it comes with the get clear assessment because it's going to help him not be so intimidated as it comes to ideating what are his options right now. And then not only will we give you that, Christian will also set him up if he'd like to call my show where I can actually coach your hubs directly, because I believe that we can actually help him map out, and I've helped a lot of people increase their income. So I want to do that because I can't do that with him right now. Is that okay? Can we do that?

Oh, that is great.

All right.

All right.

So I want to bring Jade in here. Jade, what do you see in here? What are your thoughts?

Ken, I think you're exactly right. We talk all the time about getting your income up. And it's usually divided between two ideas. It's either side hustle, which is kind of a short term way to accomplish some goals. But if your core income isn't right, the next way is your core income. And that's really the problem here. But to your point, it's true. When you set out to get your core income up, you have to know, like, this is a journey over time, and you're going to have to make the investment of time and money. You're probably going to have to get your skill sets up. That might cost some money for some people is. Yeah, it's upskilling. It's getting a certificate. It might be continued education. For some people, it's. The job market I'm in is not great. And so let's move to a place where there's a better job market. So just understanding that it's not a light switch, that you flip that immediately, you're upping your income by $40,000. This is a journey.

That's right.

And Ken, kudos to you for offering that coaching. That's very valuable. And I think that's.

We can get him there. Now, one other thing I want to mention, Heidi, with, with Jade here, because you're. You're a full time. You're a full time mama and a full time pro working on it. You got two youngsters.

Yeah.

She's has some unique challenges.

That's right.

What I want you to address is, okay, she needs to keep working those 20 hours, and it's really hard. What are some options to get some help? Heidi? Is there, is there a grandma, a grandma in your church or a lady who, she's raised kids and she could step in that gap to where your husband's not feeling all that weight? Because we still need those 20 hours of income right now.

We do. And I think it's important. The same way we're looking at how to maximize his income, there probably are ways that you can maximize your 20 hours. What are you doing right now and what are you getting paid?

Yeah, I'm a front end helper at a local boutique studio, so I get paid 15 an hour. I do get a little commission, but it's so irregular. I can't even. Sometimes it's $30, you know, a month. But it was the most flexible was working more than nighttime shifts. You know what I mean? So that was why we.

What is that nighttime shift look like for you really quick? We only got about a minute. What's that nighttime shift look like?

I've been working three to eight or two to eight because he was at home in the afternoon and then I.

Pm to 08:00 p.m. yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, here's what I'm going to recommend. I'm going to recommend a target, a Walmart, a big box store.

Make 18, $20 an hour to where.

We could get a couple more bucks an hour because everything matters right now.

It does. That's a big difference. And the more experience you get, who knows? You might be able to pop into, you know, another type of job that you're doing remotely that they have the ability to pay you more because it's remote work. So look into that. Virtual assistants make a lot of money.

Hang on the line, Heidi. We're gonna get that resource for your husband, and I'd love to schedule a call with him. We can change his name, location, all that to protect the privacy there. But he can be making more money and should be, and that's going to change your life. Thanks for trusting us. Thanks for the call. Hang in there, mama. It's going to get better. You guys are doing a great job. This is the Ramsey show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm Ken Coleman, and Jade Warshaw is with me. The phone number for you is triple 8825-5225 triple 825-5225 love to get your question. You know, we talk about this all the time, Jay. The best way to make the most of your money is to create a what?

A budget.

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All right, let's get back to the phones. Toronto is where Jason is joining us. Jason, how can we help?

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. Actually, I have some questions in regards. I wanted to consolidate a lot of my debt into my mortgage because I'm finding I'm doing a lot of Peter pays Paul, and I'm not really gaining anywhere paying off my debt. My bank has actually suggested a whole equity line of credit, which I believe is known as a HELOC. Now, George, I believe you're not a fan of helocs, and I don't know enough about them.

Well, George is not with us, but you are correct that he is also not a fan of it.

None of us are.

Nor are we.

Here's the thing. Let's stop right there. Because you told me you're doing a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul, right?

Yeah.

And this is essentially, this would be you continuing that pattern if you do this, because you'd be robbing the equity in your mortgage to pay. And I pay in air quotes, because you're not really paying it off. You're just moving the debt, truly, to a more risky place. You're moving it from kind of having a freestanding location out there in the abyss to now being connected to your home, which means if for some reason, you fall on even harder times and you have a hard time paying that debt now, your home is at risk. Whereas before you could have chosen, hey, no matter what, I'm paying my mortgage on keeping these four walls. So it's what I'm doing right now. So for that reason, it's not a good idea. Tell us more about your debt, and let us offer a situation that's going to give you less stress.

Sure. I mean, I've currently got 18 years left on my mortgage, which is at 134,000. And then I have a truck loan that's out there at 56. I've got five years left on that.

56,000.

56,000.

Okay.

And then I have a couple of. Line of credit. Personal line of credit and a couple of consumer cards.

Tell me the personal line of credits.

Yeah. So I have a. Like, a personal line of credit that's at 16,000, at 9%. Most of my percentages are all at ten and 9%.

Yikes. Okay.

Interest rates.

Okay.

Not over that. My truck loan is at 3.9. So, basically, totaling all my personal debts is $78,000 right now.

So you got 78,000. And it's between trucks. Personal loans. And what was the last thing?

Just trucks. And it's all trucks and line of credit. I have three different line of credit.

And can you tell me the amounts on the other line of credits? You've got the 16,000. Tell me the others.

Yeah, sure. I got 16,000. I have one that's at 26 90. And I have one that's at $84.

$84. Okay, well, we're paying that one off.

I'm working hard on paying those. That's right.

Okay. Gotcha. Okay, so I get what I see. Your line of thought. Your line is like, let me simplify this. I'm going to throw it all into one payment. Let's consolidate exactly but honestly, by doing.

That, I figured I was saving myself roughly $750 a month.

Yeah, you're filtering it through, you're filtering it through interest rates, and you're filtering it through, like I said, kind of like a simplicity mindset of like, I'll put it all in one spot, but psychologically, you're putting yourself in a tougher spot because what's going to happen here is you're going to throw it onto the mortgage, and not only are you putting your home at risk, but now it's kind of like out of sight, out of mind. It's not bothering me. And you've pulled it out of your equity. So there's many ways I could coach you here. I'm not going to go into the initial purpose of buying a house, but just really quick remember, the reason that you bought a house is because you wanted stability, and it was a way for you to build wealth. If you roll this into your home, you're eliminating both of those things. You're eliminating the stability that you had in your mortgage and you're eliminating the wealth in the equity that you'd built up in your mortgage. So just throwing that out there, let's talk about a way that we can do this that psychologically will allow you to accomplish it faster.

So tell us about your income.

So, income is roughly about 45,000 a year. My monthly expenses is $42,058, $4258.

Okay, what do you do? What do you do for a living?

I do bookkeeping.

Bookkeeping.

Bookkeeping and tax person.

Is it your own business or you work for someone?

I do have my own corporation and my corporation pays me out in dividends.

Got you.

So anything that my corporation has, I pay myself in whatever the profit.

Are you maxed out right now as far as clients and time?

No, not. I am still expanding because I'm still relatively new. Covid actually was a good thing for me, being that I was able to start this home business because I had two part time jobs. Now I've gone to one full time, which is this one. I am expanding yearly. In the last three years, my wage has gone from 50 to, like, my business wise has gone from 50 to 70 to 85 last year.

But that's not what you're paying yourself.

But that's not what I'm paying myself. That's correct.

Can you pay yourself or there's nothing time?

No, at this present time, no. That's why I'm still expanding my client.

Okay, so. And Ken is going to talk to you more about this but the prop. The glaring problem here is your income. That's why this is strangling you. And so there might be. Ken's going to advise you on that, but it might be something that you pick up something else until you can get this income up. But for you, even a side hustle at this point is just a band aid because until that income gets up to a point where it's not, you know, very, very difficult to handle this, it's going to be a problem. Uh, because at the end of the day, what we're doing is we're listing these out, smallest to largest. But if there's no margin to make the, any payment beyond minimum payments, then we're treading water. Right. So, Ken, give them some.

Well, with somebody of your experience, you need to be doing.

I'm a numbers guy.

Yeah, but you need to be doing way more work. You need to be offering your services. You need to max out this. Working for yourself needs to feel like overtime.

Yeah, because is that 45 gross or is that what you're netting your pay?

That's when I'm netting. Okay, 45 is what I'm netting.

Okay, okay.

Still, still this.

I mean, so basically I have, basically I'm paying myself about 5000 a month and I've got about $4,200 in expenses.

Yeah, right.

But are you paying your. Okay, so are. What are you paying? Are you paying yourself everything that comes in the door out of this business?

Yes.

Yeah.

So I thought. So we got a max out.

So essentially, basically what it is, is I got 15% is going to the government, 25% going skating to my corporation to cover some of my house bills because I can run some of my business.

We get it.

Yeah, we know. We get it.

We get it.

What I'm saying is the rest of it is mine.

I get it. But I. We're on the same page. But you've got to make more money. And there needs to be some intensity, not just on walking the baby steps out, as Jade has told you. There needs to be some intensity for you right now to dig yourself out of this. And with your bookkeeping experience, all the number crunching, you need to be offering your services left, right, north, south, all over the place. And I might even consider a part time job, you know, if it's not just a contracted new client. Don't limit yourself to your traditional business model right now. You need to be working because you, my friend, have over leveraged yourself and you got to stop this stuff right now. And you got to have money to knock it out or else this is going to take way longer than needs to.

Yeah. Do you file, I mean, tax time is going to be coming up. Do you file taxes? Do you do returns and that sort of thing?

Yes. Yes. And that's my prime time.

Okay. That's your.

Yeah, I do both. Like, I'm a regular monthly client, but then I'm doing hours of overtime to get all.

When is that? What time of year?

Our season is family day, which is mid February to the end of April.

Right. So you already know that's your hot zone, but I'm talking. You got to create a hot zone right now. Right now. This is all about income. This is all about income. You got to get your income up. And then Jade, what does he do with all that extra income?

Don't fool yourself by consolidating this. We found that people who consolidate their debt feel like they've done something. And especially when you roll it into your house, you feel like the debt's actually gone, and then you end up going deeper into debt again. So cautionary tale. I'm telling you because I know we take these calls day after day. I'm not making this up. Don't consolidate your debt. Pay it off. Smallest to largest.

Thanks for the call, Jason. Appreciate it. Get after it, my friend. That's your theme right now. This is the Ramsey show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show, America. Thrilled that you're here. We want to help you win with your money, win in your work and win in your relationships. The phone numbers Triple 888-25-5225 Triple 8825-5225 I'm Ken Coleman. J. Warshaw is alongside.

Yay.

And in the lot of Ramsey solutions on the debt free stage, we've got Jeff and Carrie. Hello, guys. Hello.

What's up?

Where are you guys from? Salt lake city, Utah. Salt lake city, Utah. All right, so give us a story. You're here for a debt free screen. How much debt do we pay off?

We paid off $353,000.

Wow.

How long that took us? Just a little over nine years.

Uh, oh, I sniffed something out right here.

I know. Ask away.

Does that include the house?

It sure does.

Okay. That's amazing. That is amazing. I put you in a really rarefied class. Dave likes to call those people weird people. It's his line. I can't take it. Do you guys feel weird, or you feel great?

Our kids tell us we're super weird.

Well, by the way, all kids think their parents are weird, so that's a good sign that you're doing something right. Nine years. That's. That is a journey. I mean, you're sniffing a decade right there.

Yeah. Yeah. It felt like it would never end at times.

So take us. Take us back to nine years ago. What was the impetus for this journey?

Okay, so, what happened was, we got out of school, and we had purchased this house, and between the two, we just felt like we were kind of drowning in debt at that point. When we went through school, we took out a $54,000 loan by the end of it, and we took as much money as they would give us so that we could raise our family, because we didn't want our family not being able to eat, not being able to have the things they need. And so we didn't know about Dave Ramsey at the time, and so we just took everything we could and got mounted up quite a bit of debt.

All right, so, let me jump in here, and what do you guys do for a living? And I'd love to know the range of income here now that we got the start of this journey. So, we're both software engineers. Okay. Wow. And then when we started.

Yeah, we started. We were only. When we moved into the home, I was making 85,000, and Carrie wasn't working. She was home with the kids, and. And then I. Now we're all the way up to 325,000.

Whoa.

Whoa, mama.

I mean, those are great, great jobs.

Yeah.

With. With a lot of opportunity.

Wow.

That is really interesting.

So, okay. So much like everybody else in the culture. Yeah. They say, if you want it, we've got it. We'll give you a loan for. And you guys kind of fell into that trap like so many. What was the moment that you were like, enough of this. I'm tired of playing this game. I want to opt out. Tell us about that moment and what caused it. What spurred it?

Yeah. I just remember sitting at home and thinking, we have this huge student loan, and we somehow need to pay this off before our kids start going to school. So we kind of set that goal of, how can we pay these loans? Off before our kids start going to school because they're going to need debt, too, to finance their lives. And that's kind of the mindset we had, is we just need to start paying off the debt so we can eventually finish at some point.

So stop the cycle. How did you discover this plan?

So really, I was just talking about this problem with my sister, and she's like, hey, have you ever heard this guy named Dave Ramsey? I was like, no, never heard of him. And so she said, yeah, he wrote this book called the totally money makeover. You should go read it. And so I read it and immediately was like, yes, this is a plan. And just, I think our kind of analytical brains started kicking in and, you know, that's kind of how we think about it, is step by step. And so it totally made sense for us. It took Carey a little bit longer to get along.

He had to get me on board. I didn't. I didn't think we had a problem because, like, credit cards are bad. Credit cards are bad. But you never hear, like, student loans are bad.

Sure.

So I was like, we don't have credit card debt. We never did that. Yeah, we just have this one student loan. Yeah. And you're right, because that's a very interesting point, Jade, because a student loan is tied culturally.

Yes.

To a very good thing.

It's an investment into your education. Yes.

Yeah, that is interesting.

Yeah, that's real. So you both do the same type of work, but, like, when you were computing, do we do this plan? It kind of. It didn't hit you the same, Carrie.

Yeah, it didn't hit me the same. Well, I was running the numbers of how long it would take us, and he would make spreadsheets and charts. And that's a long journey. We're signing it.

Yeah.

You're busy as it is and adding all this sacrifice in there. All right, so. So once you got on board, um, how intense was it? I mean, how intense? Because we got the student loans, and then eventually we decided to take care of the house. Yeah. Like, once he got me on board, it was like. And we had the momentum from finishing the student loan. It was like, why stop there?

Mm hmm.

You know, and I kept hearing, you know, dave say, like, get a bigger shovel. And so I went back to work full time. So that really helped.

Yeah. To me, it was seeming like, how are we going to get to the end of this? And we were only about maybe a year and a half, two years out at that point, but we were walking down the street one day and she looked at me and she said, you know, what if I went back to work full time? And that thought had never crossed my mind.

Are you serious? As a dude? Are you shooting me straight? That did not cross your mind?

Hey, when we've got five kids, two girls, going to dance. Dance is not cheap.

Oh, no, I get it.

And you're shuttling them around everywhere like.

They'Re constantly being shuttled. But, hey, we realized that, hey, it's worth it, and it's going to change our lives forever, and we need to do this.

At what point in the journey did you go back to work in the nine years?

So it was a year ago.

Oh, wow.

How much did that juice the income by? How much? So it was. So I make 135.

That's sweet.

Yeah. I'm giving you mad love on this, Jeff, because as a guy, maybe this is me, but, like, there's. I would. I know she was busy, Carrie. I know, but I'd still be going, man, she's got a great degree. I mean, that income's real, Jake.

That's real.

We teach, we here. We could get $135,000, raise a. I'm impressed with him.

Yeah, that ain't. That ain't a little bit, because I.

Promise you, if she just said that to me on the walk, I'd have fallen over.

So. So. And this might be a loaded question, but I. I relate to the journey. And so a lot of these were really hard years. Like, you guys were cutting back a lot. And, of course, it got juicy in the last year during the. What I'm gonna call beans and rice. Rice and beans years. What was the hardest part? I mean, what were the sacrifices? Because you had to have been cutting it thin with five kids and one income.

Yeah. I think some of the biggest ones are probably the cars. So, you know, at work, they've. They've got the parking spots that you can reserve, but it turns out you can only reserve them if you have certain years models of cars.

What?

And so mine was the 2005 Cr V, and they said, sorry, your car doesn't qualify.

That's nice.

This is car discrimination.

That's like when you go to the valet. Like, you go to a nice restaurant and you valet the car, but they only put the nice ones, like, in the front where you can see them.

Put that one in the back over there. Put that one where the staff parks.

That's a trip. I've never heard that before.

Oh, my gosh. All right, so real quick, gotta ask you if you two are both going to tell people the key, from your own perspective, to actually winning in this journey. What's the key for you guys? I think it's, you know, don't give up. It's like, it's a long journey, you know? And we live in, like, instant gratification. I want it now. I want it now. But just keep going. Like, once. Once we decided to do it, like, we're doing it, like, you can't keep changing your mind. Like, is this really worth it or not? You know, you have to be. You have to be committed. Yeah. Because it's a long journey. Love it. All right, so we got the kiddos with us. Let's get them up on the stage and get them ready for the screen. Tell us who we got. So we have Bradley, who's 16, Emma, 15, Alyssa, 13, Christopher, eleven, and dylan, who is nine. All right, is everybody. Is everybody practiced? Are they ready? We think they are ready. Okay. All right, let's get to this. We got Jeff and Carrie, along with bradley, Emma, Alyssa, Christopher, and dylan, all from Salt Lake city.

They paid off jade $353,000 over nine years. And that includes, folks, their house, Jeff and Carrie and fam. Take it away. Let's hear your debt free scream. One, two, three, we're debt free.

Wow.

I mean, that's a chorus. That was impressive. They were all. All in sync.

They were.

I think the kids are excited about it.

Yeah.

I mean, we got some teens and preteens, and usually those. Those age groups they're not excited about.

No, no, no. Care less. But this is a big deal.

What a great family. The whole house paid off almost a decade. That is. That is what this is all about. Thank you all so much for sharing that with us. All right, quick break. We're gonna go out and high five this awesome family. We'll be back with more of The RAmsey show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm Ken Coleman, and Jade Warshaw is with me. And we are here for you. Triple 8825-5225 Rick is up in Syracuse, New York. Rick, how can we help? Hey, how you doing today? I'm kind of in that struggle of being in college and not sure and not being sure what I should do next. I'm a professional athlete as well as.

Playing professional or as well as playing collegiate sports. I play collegiate and professional lacrosse. And I know that's not the moneymaker.

But I'm just not sure if I.

Should continue studying or if I should.

Find another venture outside of school. Yeah. How long have you been in college? This is my second year.

After this year, I'll get my associates degree. Yeah, it'll be in business administration with.

A heavy course load in accounting and communications. Okay. Well, no matter what we come up with here in the next few minutes, my advice is, since you're almost there to the two year associates, just do it. I'd go ahead and play this part out for sure because there's some value to that. So the question is, when anybody asks me this is, should I go to college or should I drop out? The answer is, is college the only way? In other words, the degree, the four year degree. At this point, is it the only way to do what you want to do, or is it the best way to do what you want to do? That's. That's my two part question. It's never going to change. I'm never going to change on that, because to me, it's all about practicality. It's time and money you're spending right now. And, and so the question is, and I think I know the answer, do you have a clear idea or do you have a couple of ideas that are floating around in your head about what you would do outside of being a lacrosse player? Um, yeah, I have a couple ideas, but nothing really concrete, I guess.

All right, give me the couple of ideas. We'll go idea one, then. Idea.

If I were to get my associates.

And then I would go to a four year next year, most likely on scholarship.

That's the one thing.

Because of being an athlete and having.

Good grades, I have little to no.

Debt, and I will have little to.

No debt even if I pursue more school. Okay.

That's a good option.

So. And then so be by, I think, halfway through the. If I were to take a trimester on my junior year, at the end of that trimester, I would be able.

To sit for the CPA exam to become an accountant. Okay. So ideal one. You thought about that for a while. Okay. And what's idea number two? Idea number two is some. Some sort of business venture into the sports world, whether it's coaching younger kids or connecting, you know, students to college.

Coaches or professional coaches or something along that nature.

Okay. And is there any other idea that floats around or pops up from time to time that we might call idea three?

Um.

It's okay if there isn't.

Yeah.

Okay.

I can't think of it.

All right, let's stay with those two. Okay. I don't know about my. My good friend Jade, but, Jade, I see two very, very, very in of the spectrum on idea one and idea two. Idea one is accounting, which is very process driven work. Idea two, which was kind of a nebulous description, but it would be, in the sports world, some type of bridge, but it's very people driven. So I see process work, and I see people work on the ends of the spectrum. Do you see that part?

I see it.

It's very interesting. So, Rick, my question is, which one of those would you choose if you could only choose one today? And on the end of that choice was absolute success and terrific. Meaning, which one would you choose if I said you can only have one.

Of those sports for sure?

Yeah, I knew that. I could hear it. Number one in his voice. But what I think has got you kind of stuck, and why you called today is because that, that sports direction, that's all you gave us, was kind.

Of a direct, clearest path.

And therein lies, Rick, why you're feeling stuck, because the other one is. Is super clear and definable. I go and I sit for my CPA exam. And that allows me some pretty clear options going forward. The other one, the way you described it, you just haven't figured out what a destination? Could be. And I think you've got to come up with a couple of real, tangible destinations. In other words, and I'm not going to hang these on you, Rick, and I don't want to, but one idea would be, do I become an agent? Another one is, do I become a coach? Another one is, do I step into some type of advisory role? You know, another one could be director, athletic, and then the other one could be because of nil. Do you combine. And this is an idea that I had, Jade. So I'm gonna throw this to you, Rick. Do I combine that ability to crunch numbers? Cause I think that's what's leading you down the CPA path. You're good with numbers. Is that true or false? Yeah.

Pretty good numbers.

Yeah. Pretty organized dude, aren't you?

Mm hmm.

Yeah. Pretty logical. Yeah. And so I wonder if some type of role in nil, because you're a college athlete, you have entree into a world that I do not have entree. I would have to kick some doors down.

Interesting.

And I wonder about Nil and the money side of nil and athletes and how these athletic departments, because, Jade, as you know, this is the wild, wild west. Thoughts, Rick? Or questions for Jade and I?

Yeah.

Okay. So here's.

I guess I really haven't even explored.

Because I just been kind of stuck in. That's right.

The midst of everything moving so quickly.

Right. So, Rick, here's my actual advice. Okay. And I want Jade to weigh in. My advice is exactly what you just said. I was pointing out to you that you have to explore, and explore intentionally and intensely right now. Because I'm not at a place where I can say yay or nay on should you drop out of the next two years of school. We've. What we've both told you, we think you ought to finish the associates because you're there. But I am going to say I'm not sure. And I'd say, hold on. Deciding about finishing the four year program, because I first want you to determine what are my options in the sports route. You have already told us that you would prefer to work in the area of sports bingo. So now we're clear on that part. Now, your homework assignment is to do the research and actually talk to real people, men and women who are holding down positions in the multiple different jobs or career paths within college sports or pro sports. Make sense?

Yep.

So here's what this looks like, because I want to simplify this. Make a listen. And I started a list, by the way. You may cross off every one that I gave you, which is okay, but that's the exercise. Would I be interested in being an agent? Go do some homework. Talk to somebody. Would I be interested in being an athletic director? What do you think, Jade? I think that's his homework assignment. And then we come up with two or three that we're actually going. I would be fulfilled. And I think I've got the chops, the talent to do that. And so now I ask the question, do I need to finish the degree?

I'm 100% with Ken. I think when you're looking in an area that's a little bit more vague and it's not the career path that everybody's suggesting, job after job after job, you kind of have to do your research. I think it is, in many ways, like, excavating. Like, you start in one layer, and the more you dig in, you find all these new opportunities that people just aren't talking about in day to day conversation. It doesn't mean that they're not there. I experienced that in music. It was like, well, if you want to be a musician, everybody was telling me, kind of like these top layer, superficial jobs that felt way out of reach. But when you keep digging, you find there's a whole world of opportunity. If you just dig in, you start making connections, and before you just keep. My husband and I had this framework of thought. If there's a door handle, we turn it, and we find out what's behind the door and what the opportunity is, you learn more about it. You give it a try, and then that leads to another real quick, tell your story.

That's how you get on cruises and make really good money and pay off half a million dollars. That did you.

No one was talking about that. When I was in school, Rick, it was like, okay, if you're in music, you're going to be a teacher, you're going to be a band director, and maybe you'll become Britney Spears or Beyonce. And if that's not the case, good luck to you. Right? No one talked about that. There's a whole world. You can work on cruise lines and you can work in theaters, and you can be a talent agent, and you can be a booker. All these things. Nobody was talking about that. It wasn't until we dug deeper into Ken's point. You find people who are doing what you want to do, and you interview them, and you go to work with them, and you do all those things, and you see a whole. A whole Pandora's box of opportunity.

You and Sam both Rick, both. Both Jade and Sam have been individually and then together, they've been wildly successful in what would be a non traditional entertainment gig.

That's right.

And the proof is in the pudding. So, Rick, hang on the line. I'm going to give you a copy of my number one best selling book. It's called the proximity principle. And it's going to make all this connecting things strategically to see what opportunities are out there really simple to follow. So that's my gift to you. So head up. Don't sell your soul to the safe accounting job. Not yet. I don't see it. Not ever.

I don't see it.

Thank you. I agree. Good hour. Jay Warshaw. Thank you, America, for listening. This is the Ramsey show.

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Welcome to the Ramsey show, where we help you win in your life, America. Specifically, winning in your money, winning in your work, and winning in your relationships. The phone number for us to coach you up is triple 8825-5225 Triple 8825-5225 the dynamo next to me is the one, the only, Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. She'll take lead on the money calls and help you manage the money. And I want to help you make more money. So it's a good combo. Let's get right to it. We're going to go to Denver, Colorado. Peter is there. Peter, how can we help today?

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call.

You bet.

So I'm calling in because my wife and I are in baby step two and trying to get out of debt. And about a year and a half ago, I got my wife a horse lease started because she loved being with horses and working with them. She was, at the time volunteering at a horse center for people with disabilities. So she got to basically just shovel, poop and be around horses, but didn't get to ride ever. And I saw how much joy that was bringing her, so I got her this horse lease.

What's that mean? Can you explain that more to me?

Yeah, I've never heard of that.

Yeah. So basically we pay $350 a month, and she can go out to this property and ride the horse whenever she wants. Her, myself and the kids, actually. So it's been a lot of fun, but I'm wondering if we're being irresponsible since we're in baby step two.

Is it. Can I ask more? I'm just going to dig deeper on the horse lease real quick. So is it. There's several horses on the property and she can ride any horse, or does she kind of get assigned a horse that's like. That's her horse? Tell me more about it. Is it personal? Is it.

Yeah. So we just have the one horse that we have access to.

And how long is. How long have you been doing this?

About a year and a half.

Year and a half.

And the idea of her giving this up is met with what kind of reaction?

Not great. A lot of tears. And she feels like it just helps her a lot emotionally.

Yeah.

How.

Wow.

How long would you have to give it up? I mean, how long is you guys journey? Are we talking?

So I don't. So we have like 21,000 in debt. I've got 3000 on the last credit card. 5000. Maybe it's over 21. So 5000 on my truck. And then I just got a personal loan for 15,000 to cover last year's taxes because that was the first year we'd ever had to pay taxes.

Okay, so you're at 23 now?

Yeah.

Okay. So is that it, or is there more?

That's it.

Okay. And what's the income? Sorry, Ken.

No, go ahead.

Make about 120,000.

Oh, okay. So why this is going to be gone in a year. You're going to live on 100 and. And you're gonna knock this out in one year or less?

Yeah. Shooting for like nine months.

Yeah.

Good for you.

Can she work or does she work outside the home?

So she homeschools our three boys and stays at home?

That's not what I asked. Can she work?

She does sometimes.

Doing well.

I'm a trim carpenter. And so when we're done with houses, the general contractor that I work for will hire her to go in and do the post construction cleanup.

And what kind of money does she make. And how long does it take her to make this money?

It's very sporadic because it's just when we finish houses. So it could be, like, three right in a row, or, like, the next one we'll have is maybe two months away.

How much time does she take when she cleans?

One to two.

One day, usually one day. And so she's able to do this with the kids?

Yeah, usually we just have my father in law babysit.

I'm gathering information over here.

I mean, I'd simplify it. I'd simplify it like this. And some people might hate this answer. Technically, if you're in baby step two, you cut out things like this. Now you guys aren't. You're not burning like some people are in debt. And you could be if you choose not to go hard on this, but you're going to be out of debt so quickly. What I'd say is, if you want to spend $350 and keep this horse, lease up with this horse that you've probably established a relationship with, just earn the $350 a month, earn it back.

It was. First of all, I am shocked right now, but I love it, because I thought you were gonna go hard on this one.

It's an amount of money that's. That is truly not gonna make or break them to that extent.

Yes. But I'm with you. I wanna make sure the audience hears this. I wanna make sure that Peter hears this. I love this idea. Cause that's what I was gonna say.

Go on it.

Mama needs to go make the 350 or there is no horse.

Yeah, if.

Because she's got to cover the horse. But I do have one question on that, Peter. Let's say it takes you nine months and all this is clear. Is that what you. Is that the number you gave us?

That's what we're shooting for.

What's the name of the horse?

Jesse.

Is Jesse gonna be available for lease nine months from now?

It's certainly not guaranteed.

Is Jesse old?

Well, that doesn't make any difference, because if Jesse dies, we can't lease him anyway.

No, but I'm just saying maybe she wants to live out Jesse's last night.

I want to throw a wrinkle into this. Peter and Jade, I'm going to throw something out and let you two discuss it.

Okay.

Ready?

Yeah, I'm ready.

I like your idea, but I think the better idea is to go talk to Jesse's owner.

Okay.

And tell Jesse's owner what the story is.

Okay.

And say nine months from now, we're going to be debt free. And this is super important to my wife. I need to know that we can jump back into the contract and lease Jesse nine months from now, and I would take the 350, and I would help mama get motivated to knock this debt out and say, we're going to stop riding Jesse for nine months.

Okay.

But I'm just throwing it. I'm throwing a hardcore alternative out there. Peter J. Discuss.

So. So, Peter, are you saying that if you were to cancel the lease, are you worried about Jesse not being available and that somebody else would take the lease spot? Is that what you're concerned about?

Essentially, yes. Yeah. She could just lease her out to somebody else, which is why I have.

The conversation with Jesse's owner.

Yeah, well, but if I'm the owner, if I'm. If I'm Jesse's owner, I'm like, you want me to hold the horse?

But how can she not lease him out to, like, 50 people? How many times can you ride Jesse in one month? I mean, that's easy. Got to be available.

So we're. There's usually only one.

By the way, I should point out to people who just jumped in.

Horse.

Jesse is a horse. We're talking about riding a horse. Yes, I probably made that clear.

Yes.

I'll refer to him as the horse.

From now, Jesse the horse.

So it's not to confuse everybody. All right. But how many times can you ride the horse in a month?

She goes out like, once a month.

Right?

Okay. Twice. Oh, that's a lot of. Well, twice a week for $350. And I don't want to get too deeply into your business, but I did want to ask because you kind of alluded to it. Does your wife struggle with, like, some. Anything mentally, because you said it helps her mental health?

I don't think it's so much like a mental health problem, so much as just like she. She's with the boys constantly. She homeschools.

Totally.

And that kind of like her.

No need.

Yes. Our children drive us crazy. We are.

She needs a little time with nature. Come on.

And. Okay, I. Listen, I think Ken's idea can't hurt. It can't hurt you to go by and say, hey, we've got a nine month window. We've been working with you guys for a year and a half. We love it. Can we need to temporarily suspend this? And then we'll be back. You know, give him the date and time. If he says yeah, say yeah. But if not, yeah, tell mom and be like, hey, mom, if you want to keep this going. You just got to fund it. Because we decided that our priority is paying off the debt. And so we decided that that's the priority with our current income. And I want to stand by that. And if you want to do something.

More, clean some houses.

Mama got stuff on.

Clean some toilets.

Well, it doesn't have to be toilets. That's the last thing I'm gonna. That's the last job I'm taking.

I'm trying to make a point. She really wants to ride the horse. You gotta pay for it. This is the Ramsay show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show, where we help you win with your money, winning your work, and winning your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. Triple 8825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. Let's get back to the phones. Chris is there in Columbus, Ohio. Chris, how can we help today?

How are you guys doing today?

We're doing great. What's. What's going on?

Well, straight to the point, I got into some credit card debts.

How much?

I'm about 50,000. 50,000?

What happened?

Yeah, that's a lot. What took place?

It is so, all right, about 2021, I bought a house, went into it having a little bit of credit card debt, when what I didn't realize is, when buying a house, there's stuff that need help. I went in, like maybe $8,000 in credit card debt and had it sitting on a 0% balance transferred. I wasn't that worried, and it was great. I still think the house was a good investment. We got in sub 3% on the interest rate and values gone up by 25%. But the cost of ownership, the cost of owning the house, a lot of times that just fell to the credit cards.

Yeah.

Was that because. So the question I have is that because you didn't have any margin in your paycheck when it came to everything else and so any kind of house repairs or all that was just a squeeze on you? Or was it because you had a new house and you're all excited and you guys wanted to start doing some projects and you didn't have the cash for it, so you thought, well, we'll just put it on the card. Was it that some of both. What were we talking about?

Little. Little bit of both. I mean, so, you know, I got. I got young boys. They are. When we moved in here, they were eight and six. And, man, that's really the perfect time to build a treehouse in the backyard. So you know where that went? That went to the credit card.

Okay.

You know, we got a half bath downstairs, and I'm pretty handy. I could do a lot of stuff myself.

Well, what percentage of your. What do you take home every month? What's your take home pay between you and your wife?

So I'm making about 100 a year, and that's just because of a new position that I've taken this year. Last year, and when I bought the house, I was making about 85.

And what's your take home pay? What do you see on your check every month?

Let's see. I make 13 and change every week.

Every week. 1300.

Yes.

Okay. And then what percent. How much is your mortgage?

2400 with taxes.

Okay, so 5200 net?

Yeah.

Wow.

So that, that's, that's a little bit. Tell me again. I'm sorry, Ken said something. Tell me again the. What your mortgage is every month?

2424 hundred.

Okay. I think that's where some of the problem is, because you're getting really close to that being half of your take home pay.

Yeah, it very much is.

And so that's where we get into this, because, I mean, think about it like this. And I don't think people take enough time to think about these ratios. We say, all right, your mortgage should be no more than 25% of your take home. So there's 25 there. If you're a giving person. You're probably doing around 10% there. And then when it comes time to do your investing, you're doing 15% there. That's 50% right there. So if you mess around and your mortgage creeps up 25 more points, you're at 75% of your income and you haven't even done anything yet. So, yeah, no wonder you would be going to credit cards, right? Because you haven't even bought groceries. You hadn't, you know, taken a vacation. You've done nothing. So I think that what's really, really squeezing you is the mortgage. That's probably thing one. And then if you're not on a really tight budget, then this money just disappears. Are you guys doing an every dollar budget?

We're very good about budget. You know, we're both emotional people. And so occasionally, do you have some impulse purchases that take us outside of that budget? And you're aware of it creeping up? We're getting a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Okay, so what it might be for.

You guys, the no spend months.

Okay, so. But that's not sustainable. So what it might be for you guys, it's one of two things. The first thing is, if we know that we're on a tight budget and we knowingly say, we can't afford this, but we're gonna put on the credit card.

We're gonna put on the credit card.

You know, we're gonna do that. So you've decided that. And so for that reason, then you need to say, okay, this is a habit we have, and it's not working for us. Let's cut up the credit card. That way, when that sneaky feeling of let's build a treehouse sneaks up. You can't put it on a credit card because you ain't got a credit card, right? So let's take the cookies off the shelf so you're not tempted by them, and then you're forced to stick to your budget. And then what will happen is you'll go, man, I'm just, I'm not happy with something, with our lifestyle. We want more money. And then your creative brain will kick in. You'll go, okay, what can we do to bring up our income? And you won't be dependent on these credit cards anymore.

I think you should cut your card up right now on the year. Hey.

Uh oh.

We got a uh oh.

I double dog dare you.

Did you hear the chuckle? That was.

The respectful chuckle is an uncomfortable last.

Credit card I'll take.

Do all of them, cut them right now.

Yeah, I know. Yeah. You know what? I would. Honestly, we've stopped using them. I used to be in the habit of, you know, we put everything on the credit card, we pay it off. Uh huh. But, you know, just a couple of those times where it is leaked beyond where we were able to fully pay it off.

Chris, you're not ready.

He's not ready, Chris.

But you gotta get you. Here's the problem. I don't think you've hit. I don't think you're ready.

Yeah.

I don't think you've hit that moment.

Should he charge ten more grand? Let's get it to 60. What's gonna make you miserable?

I was gonna have to make you so uncomfortable with these things that you're like, no more. That's what we find, Ken. That is what we find on this show.

I agree. Hundreds. You're not there. You're not called us.

What?

So what is the reason for calling?

Pretty close.

What's the reason for calling?

So my question is dealing with the credit card debt. I feel like I've got three.

Well, maybe we just told you.

So.

We got to stop using them first. Then we pay it down.

Roll this over in your mind, Chris. Roll this over in your mind. You cannot solve a problem while simultaneously creating it. So as long as you have these credit cards, you're creating the problem so you'll never solve it. It's infinite. It's the cat chasing its tail. Dog chasing its tail. So you have to stop the crazy cycle. And the way you stop the crazy cycle is you say, I'm not gonna keep contributing to this problem. I'm not gonna keep adding to the pile. I'm gonna stop it. Turn off the faucet. Then you can clean up the mess.

Yes, absolutely.

And so what, Ken and I were.

At that point, and that's kind of why I'm calling.

Then you gotta cut those bad boys up. Snap them up. Yeah, put him through the little dude.

I'll cut him up right now.

Because you guys got an impulse problem.

Yeah.

And you just said. That was your words. You got them right now. We got. We got about a minute and a half. You got him on you?

Yeah. You got it down?

Yeah. Do it.

Do it.

And you're gonna be in the fetal position later today. You're gonna maybe sob in the shower, because you're gonna realize, oh, my gosh. I. This. This was a security blanket.

All right, so you got some scissors? Do we need on? Okay. This. Tell everybody what's happening right now. Describe what's happening? We got to make this exciting.

Oh, okay. Which one we got here?

Hold it near the phone so we can hear it.

Okay, hold on.

Chase. This is a chase visa.

Let's see if you can hear that. Yeah.

We heard. We heard the. We heard the exhale.

Sure you weren't giving yourself a haircut? That was a sound like barber scissors.

So we got to go. We got about 45 seconds. What do you. What's next?

Options for getting at the credit card. I don't want to do something stupid, but, I mean, with these. They're charging 30%.

Cut it. Stop talking and cut it. What are you saying? Cut it.

What do you got it?

Which one are you cutting? Tell us quick.

Hold on.

City guard.

City card. Go.

Yes. Out here.

We won't wait for the sound. Just tell us when it's cut. Oh, yes.

There it is. It's gone.

Do you see? That's great. How many more you got?

Wait till I get to the MX in the drawer.

Keep going.

Well, you know what we are? We're a cash business, and we got a lot of people that need to hear these advertisements coming up, so we got to take care of business. You, my friend, need to keep cutting. Yeah, keep cutting.

Don't job, Chris.

Love it. Did you hear that? Every time he cut one, he went. He went.

Oh, yeah. It's painful. It's visceral. You feel it.

That is so fantastic. Keep cutting, Chris.

Yes.

All right. We'll be right back. This is the Ramsey show.

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Don't you think life is too short to hate Mondays? Listen, you're worth loving the work you do and where you do it. So guess what? Ramsay Solutions is hiring. If you're ready to join an amazing team that's all about changing lives and spreading hope, we want to see your application. Right now we're hiring for technology, sales, marketing, writing, copy editing and creative roles. Check out all our job postings@ramsaysolutions.com. careers. That's ramsaysolutions.com careers. The Ramsey show continues. We're thrilled that you are with us. Triple 8825-5225 Triple 888-825-5225 I'm Kentley Coleman. Jade Warshaw is alongside. It's time for a question of the day brought to you by why refi student loan debt is an epidemic and defaulting on debt makes you feel even worse. But our question of the day sponsor why Refi refinance is defaulted private student loans and builds a custom loan based on your ability to pay. You'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate you couldn't get anywhere else. So go to why refi.com today slash Ramsey? It's actually why refi.com ramsey? That's letter yrefy.com ramsay. It may not be available in all states.

Today's question comes from us, from Bethany in Arkansas. She says, three years ago, my husband changed jobs to work for a guy who does home renovations. Their verbal agreement was that my husband would work for a year, then become a partner in the business. The partnership offer never materialized, but my husband is no longer interested in that because their leadership styles are very different. He often complains because he does all the jobs while the owner goes on leisure trips. I have encouraged my husband to start his own business, but he feels guilty because his boss taught him how to do everything. How can I encourage him to leave his current employer so that he can make more money doing the same work but for himself instead of for someone else?

Well, Bethany, I don't know that you're supposed to be encouraging him to leave as opposed to just being supportive and allowing him to come to that conclusion. And the way that you can do that is by asking questions, not making suggestions. I would have a sense here, Jade, that the excuse given I'm not going to leave because I feel guilty, because my boss has taught me how to do everything. And while he's griping to her about the fact that he does everything while the other guy leaves, here's what I think. I think he's afraid, and which is why I'm saying I'm trying to help Bethany out. I think he's afraid to go out on his own. And while he's miserable, he's more afraid than he is miserable, because we're more afraid of the unknown. So we'll stick with the devil we know, if you will. And I just. I've just coached so many people who are in this situation. So in her situation, and I love her and what she's trying to do, it's like, you can't push him because he's afraid. It's like trying to get your kid. Remember the first time that your kids jumped in the pool and you caught him?

You can't force them as a parent. You got to just encourage them by saying, I'm here. I got you. I promise I'll catch you. You can't make the kid jump. And in this case, asking him questions like, what would it take? What would make you feel comfortable to actually leave? I get that you're guilty, but. And asking questions like that, having real conversations where he feels supported and he feels heard. And I guess my point I'm making, you and I coach people all the time. A good coach doesn't tell their client what to do. A good coach asks a lot of questions and lets that person come to the awareness of, oh, if I were to go do a couple side jobs and get 15 grand in the bank and line up a pipeline of work, I'd feel more comfortable leaving, or whatever that is. That's my take. What do you think?

I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and I'm gonna take a hot take on this.

I like it.

I kind of feel like if somebody's got to convince you to go into business for yourself, you're probably not cut out for it. Because I kind of feel like, like, if they've got to really prod you and push you. Cause I think, like, that true spirit is kind of innate, and it's like, oh, if I want something, I'm gonna go out and get it. I'm gonna go out and take it. And somebody needs to convince me why I can't. I feel like it's gotta go the opposite way.

I like that.

And so there's.

I don't disagree, but I would only caveat to that. I would say is that I think some people are cut out to do it, but they're scared to death.

I do think that you can ride.

A bike, the kid can swim, but they got to get to a place where they jump or where they get on the bike.

But the spirit that you need to be successful long term is definitely an innate spirit that says, I do things afraid, and I don't let fear stop me.

I agree with that.

And so. And then there's other part of this. This is just the practicality side. Just because you're good at swinging a hammer and good at home renovations does not mean that you'll be good at running a business. Because, you know, Ken, there's all the back end stuff that has zero to do with the. The skill on tap. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, there's a lot going on.

There's a lot going on here.

But I. Do you agree, though, that he's not moving because he's scared?

Yeah.

Fear is whatever's going on, it's that.

Fear is the bigger thing and. Yeah. Yep.

All right, let's get to the phones. Triple 8825-5225 Lindsey's up in. Excuse me. Yes. Washington, DC. Lindsey, how can we help?

Hi, it's so nice to talk to both of you.

Good to talk to you. What is going on today?

Well, I'm calling because I want to better understand how to move from baby step three to four. When you have competing priorities and you're trying to build thinking funds to actually take care of those things, should they come up.

All right. Give us those priorities. And by the way, tell us who's competing. We need to know.

These are. It's the inevitable. Right? So we have 212 year old cars, okay. Both of which we've been told we'll need new transmissions.

Oof.

Yeah. We have two kids that will be entering braces.

Okay.

All of those fun things.

How much will the braces cost?

The first estimate we got was about 3000 for a year to start.

And how old are they? How old are they?

1110 and eleven.

Okay. Okay. Keep going. So two old cars, two sets of braces.

A 30 year old air conditioning unit.

Oh, man. It's always the AC. Okay.

That's coming right next year.

Okay.

And these are all, you know, like ten, $15,000 problems.

The transmissions are that much?

The recommended work is upwards of eleven on one car and $7,500 on the other.

Well, what is the car worth that they want you to pay eleven k for?

What's the worst they're not, they're not worth that much.

Okay. So what's the one worth about.

Yeah.

That seems high, doesn't it? The gear heads in the booth in there. That feels high. I would at least get, I don't want to spend a bunch of time on this. I don't want to spend a bunch of time. No time. But I would say I'd get a couple more quotes on that.

So let's, let's walk through this. So you've got three, do you have the three to six months? What do you have saved?

36,000.

You've got 36,000 saved. Now let's, let's talk about this a little bit more. Tell me your income and tell me what your margin is every, every month.

So we take in about 12,000 a month.

Okay.

And I often, we have leftovers somewhere between 500 to 2000, depending.

Five to 2000, depending. Okay. So you're spending ten, it takes 10,000 at least to run your budget.

Well, 2200 of that is savings automatic.

Okay. But you've already hit, when you say savings, do you mean investing or do you mean savings?

So I take 2200 per month and I put it into our emergency fund and kind of just reached what we would need for three months.

Okay. So you have the 222 thousand that you're already used to saving plus another 2000 of margin. So about 4000. Is that fair?

Yeah.

So four k of margin that you could save if you needed to. So if I factor this through, emergency fund thinking, which emergency fund for me is, it's totally expected, it's completely urgent and it's time sensitive. Those are the three factors.

You mean totally unexpected?

Yeah, totally unexpected. I'm sorry. Totally unexpected. Totally necessary. And there's a time factor. Those are the three things that filter for that I have to check the box of to say I'm pulling this out of my emergency fund. So let's talk about do any of them actually fit that I have to go into the emergency fund, the two old cars. Is that unexpected? Is it completely necessary and is it something that is completely time sensitive? You tell me.

Well, it's all about timing, I would think. No, I would rather prep for that.

Okay, so that already tells me this is something. We can cash flow. We can cash flow one at a time. Do, do what Ken said, get some quotes. Cash flow at one at a time. Same thing with the braces. They will be fine if they wait a little bit longer. So I don't think that that falls into emergency fund. The only one that might is the AC that's the only one that gets the green light for me that it might be. But I think you saw this coming. So I think there's a way to cash flow this and make it work. It's just going to be long term.

Yeah, I got a lot to take care of, but four grand a month adds up.

It sure does. And then you'll start your investing.

All right. You got it. Good job, Jay. This is the Ramsay show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show. So excited that you are with us. I'm Ken Coleman, and Jade Warshaw is in studio with me as well. Triple 8825-5225 hey, the get clear career says, what is it? It is a 18 to 20 minutes self awareness test. If I were going to define it, and I designed it, so I'm going to define it. You do that, and it's going to help you figure out what you do best, what you enjoy doing most, and the results that motivate you. Those are three things that you need to know to figure out the work that you're wired to do. Remember, Davis said for decades, your income is your greatest wealth building tool. And I believe that. And that's my role here on the Ramsey show, is to help people find that work that they can do best so that they can get paid the most for themselves, to live the life, fund the life that they want. So this has helped so many people, and you can get it@ramsaysolutions.com. getclear. Ramsaysolutions.com getclear. Who needs it? That'd be the person who feels stuck. Somebody who feels like they may want to pivot.

Somebody who's looking for some confidence. A student in college or high school. We have a student version ideal for high school students and college students. And then we have the adult version as well. Ramsaysolutions.com getclear. Love that. Thank you. Thank you. Alex is in Dallas, Texas. Alex, how can we help?

Hey, guys. I appreciate you taking my call.

Thank you. What's going on?

First off, I was just looking for some advice. I just turned 23, and I hit a financial goal of mine in savings, but I still live with my family. I was wondering if what y'all would say, do I take the financial hit and move out, like, in favor of personal growth? Yes.

Yes. Lord.

Yeah. I mean, the answer to that is always going to be yes. Sometimes it's yes, and then we need to figure out when. But what you've presented to us is that you've been saving up a bunch of money, and you've hit a goal and feels like you're absolutely in a place financially, where this is a good move, but give us the picture.

Okay, so my financial goal was 100,000, and I just hit that in savings.

It's a no brainer.

Oh, my.

It's a behind the back pass.

I just said yes at $1,000. Yeah.

Tomorrow, instantly. No, truly.

Way to go. By the way, can we just stop and say 100 grand? And how long did it take you to save that?

About five years of working.

How old are you now?

23.

So you started at 18, and you have amassed 100,000 in savings.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Wow.

Get out of the nest.

That's impressive. That's goat mentality. That's very, very good. No debt, right. No other debt.

In addition, most of it's in, like, a Roth Ira and then a 401K. Roth Ira.

Oh. So this is retirement.

This isn't in savings.

So in an actual cash savings, I have a brokerage account with about 35,000, and then my checking account has about seven grand.

Okay.

That the rest is in retirement.

Yes.

Okay. Seven grand in the account. Okay.

You're so great shape.

You're in great shape. You did it a little in a different kind of order. It's $100,000 nonetheless. But the truth is, not as much of this as liquid as I thought, which is fine. You can still get into an apartment. What was the goal? Was the goal I'm gonna buy a house or I'm gonna just move out into an apartment? What was your goal?

I don't think I can afford to buy a house at the moment, unfortunately, the way things are. So, I mean, if it was.

If it was liquid, you could. But since you locked in retirement. Yeah, you cannot.

What do you do for a living and how much do you make?

So I do marketing. I'm an associate marketing manager, and I make 55,000 a year.

Cool.

So, yeah, if I'm you, I would probably save up the equivalent of three to six months of expenses. That would be my last thing that I do under my parents roof. And you should be able to do that lickety split. And I would keep it liquid. Like, put it in it.

He's already got. He's got 35k in cash.

It's in. It's in a brokerage. It's not an index funds, so some of it is.

I think I probably have about half of it invested right now, but.

Yeah.

I thought you said 35.

Listen, if it's invested, I don't. For. For my purposes, if it's invested, I don't care for you to pull. I mean, I think you're in a place like, hey, I can save this up right quick. You don't necessarily have to pull it out. If you wanted to. If you're in a hurry, that's fine. It's not retirement money, but what I know. Yeah. You're obviously in an environment where you can stay with your parents and it's not caused a problem. But if I were you, I'd take a little bit longer. I'd save up three to six months, whatever is liquid. Put that all together, and then I'd move out.

Okay.

Yeah.

So what's the timeline? You tell us.

Yeah, I mean, I was thinking basically the most that I was thinking about extending it was a year because my car is pretty old.

No, that's too.

Yeah, you're too comfortable. That's the problem. I mean, I got mad respect for you. I mean, I really do. Of course, you are very disciplined financially, but I think from a. From an emotional and a maturity situation, at your age, you're a little too comfy hanging out at mom and dad's and extending it another year. I start to get nervous about that.

Yeah. I mean, you've already got 7000 liquid. I mean, what do you need, another 10,000?

Yeah. My only concern is my car. Like, it didn't start yesterday.

Okay. But that at that point, now we're just in big boy mode. Like, you can't say I'm going to make all of my financial worries go away at my parents house. It was really just the intent was for you to kind of set yourself up and give yourself a little foundation to take off. And then the year.

I want to throw something out here. Jade may disagree with me on this because his money is in a brokerage account. So it's after tax money that he's put in.

Yeah.

I would pull some of that money out and get a car.

Yeah, the broker. Yes, 100%. Yeah.

Now. And now he's got a reliable car. And then I'm just putting that into the front of your plan.

Yeah, I would do that. What's, you said there's 35 in the brokerage account, and then you've got the, the car. That's acting up. Now. If you sold it now as is, what would you get for it off? Nothing.

Maybe a grand and a half.

So we're starting over from scratch and let's.

$10,000 car, leave 25 in.

You know what? He's done such a good job.

Team. We're negotiating. We're negotiating over how much he's going to spend on a car take.

He's done such a good job.

Oh, don't say it.

If you, if you say, if you, if you're able to save up three months of expenses, I would say that if you want to spend 30,000, you.

Could buy a new car. I don't think.

No, I didn't say brand new. I said used. He has the money. He's got a hundred thousand.

Who are you and what have you done with my.

He's got three.

I don't recognize this person.

He's got three to. He'll have three to six months of expenses saved.

I'm with you.

He'll be investing 15%, totally living out on his own. He's got $135,000 saved and he's 23 years old.

Yeah, that's slam dunk. No, you gotta read the room. This guy, he's uptight. He's uptight and he got a $30,000 car.

I'm 15. Could.

I know, but I thought that's what you recommended. I'm going 15, Max. Alex.

I'm saying he could listen. If you've done the work. I'm saying if you've done the work, you should. Somebody hit me in the comments and let me know that I'm nothing. Losing it.

Anybody who's watch on this show for any amount of time is in a state of shock.

No, they're not, because they know that $30,000. They know that I'm not frugal to a fault. They know that at the right time, when you've saved the audience. I'm talking to the studio audience at this point. He's 23 years old. He saved $142,000.

The people are already speaking before you.

Can even see Mama in the back is like, oh, no, they're thumbs down.

15,000. Here's why. Let me explain. My, my take. 15,000 gets him a very nice and reliable, and it leaves a good chunk in the brokerage account.

He doesn't. He doesn't need it in his brokerage account. He's 23. He's got a hundred thousand invested.

He does need it in there because it's gonna continue to pile up.

So is the hundred thousand. It's. He doesn't need it.

He does not need a $30,000 car.

If he was 42, this would be a different.

I can see this is going nowhere.

But he makes $55,000.

Alex, what do you think?

I think I would have a little bit harder time spending about 30 grand.

You don't have to. I'm just saying you could.

Right?

Listen, I'm a fun parent.

Y'all are.

15 is more into my back it up by being frugal. I think I'm comfortable there.

Trust me, Alex, you do what you're comfortable with.

First of all, I love this version of jade. I'm not throwing shade at Jade. I'm just saying I'm shocked because I'd like to see him be more conservative. Because he already is. I think 15 makes him uncomfortable. That's fine.

He has proven to be a conservative, responsible guy. He. I'm not worried about him. He's doing all the right things.

I'm going to celebrate the fact that the studio audience is in favor of me. I'm never that right. So I want to just take it up, kid. It'll never happen again.

It won't happen again.

She is the incomparable Jade Warshaw. This is the Ramsay show.

Hey, you're still here. What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey network app, right?

All you gotta do to finish the.

Episode is search Ramsey network in the app store. Google Play store. Or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free. Yep, you heard me right. For free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Bada bing, bada boom. Alright, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.